With no practices or shoot-around to bring newly acquired forward Thomas Robinson into the mix, coach Kevin McHale did not plan to play Robinson against the Nets or Wizards even if he had been cleared in time.But a rare three-day break in the schedule offers a chance to begin that process.

“I have to spend some time with the kid,” McHale said. “We played Sacramento once this year. I prepared for them once. I know this may be hard to believe, but on my League Pass, a lot of times late at night I don’t watch Sacramento. I have not seen the kid play a lot in the NBA. I’m a coach. I don’t scout any more like I did when I was a GM. I’m not going to make any assessments on the kid until I get a chance to watch him play, be around him and coach him.”

Though McHale has a reputation for molding young players on playing in the low post, he said that will not be the primary emphasis at this stage of the season with Robinson, who is 6-10.

“Molding comes a lot in the summer,” McHale said. “For right now, we have to get him comfortable with what we’re doing. It won’t be molding. It will be rebounding, running and simple, basic stuff. Then when we have a chance to work with him in the summer, we’ll work with him.

“For him right now, any young guy, you have to find out what you do well. For him, I would say offensive rebounding. That’s one thing I’ve seen him do in this league. I’ve seen him run real aggressively. If he can add defense to that, then he’s going to find his way on to the floor. If you offensive rebound and you run hard and you can defend you can get out there. That’s what he’s got to do right now. We’ll worry about the rest of that stuff later.”